


ichigo, ichie

by spiraetspera



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, M/M, angst and death, izuna and tobirama friendship, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 13:20:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13765023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiraetspera/pseuds/spiraetspera
Summary: They had their potential. And wasted it.





	ichigo, ichie

結語

In the setting sun, Izuna’s smile seems soft, much like the smoke that lingers around them, a trademark of the Uchiha technique, a sign of their proximity and alacrity to fight. What once was associated with fire, this warmth, turns painful and piercing thus, Tobirama thinks. Numbed, he tries to move his arms and fails. The sword has gotten stuck, an error he doesn’t remember committing since he was fourteen years old and still adolescent-clumsy.   

The weapon he moves rattles the body with it, and what once was Izuna slumps back, his smile melting downwards and it mocks him. His last words hang in the air and work into his brain like a fog although Izuna himself joked once how Tobirama has been too rational - and how did Izuna shape the words? Or was it Madara? 

_Rational to the point of it being a disadvantage._

Despite all his well-renowned cold-headedness, he cannot properly see how the sword got stuck in the other’s chest, he should know the angle, but he doesn’t, not now. And Tobirama has to go far away from here, he knows this,  _lest.._.

“It is the smoke” says Tobirama, a bit too loud, just to convince himself. He blinks and braces himself to separate flesh and iron from each other, if necessary, then by force. 

Then he senses what he dreaded just a moment, a lifetime ago, the sorrow coming in by full force. Fright washes over him, and then Tobirama promptly gets  _violently_ sick, sicker than he has ever gotten before, and he has to crouch down. The waves of chakra nearing him is horrid; the promise of more blood and gore is coming towards him. He is near Izuna’s body and still - 

“Filth!” bellows a voice beyond a voice. Madara Uchiha still finds him ( _would find him even if he were dead, he would go to the otherworld and force the door of death’s dominion just to see Tobirama dead once more, just by his hands._ ) and knocks him over with the full force of his massive body. His chakra is weeping justice and murder and grief and Madara screams a scream so incoherent and primal that Tobirama’s blood turns to lead.

“He’s mad” Tobirama thinks fleetingly, except he understands. Izuna lies dead. He doesn’t even have time to let go of the sword when he flies back a bit. His right wrist breaks almost immediately and the weapon slides out a bit, but not entirely, out of the body of the younger Uchiha.

Izuna finally drops to the ground though Tobirama cannot hear anything, except the blood in his ears as his heart decides to dwell in them temporarily.

_It is the pain_ , he thinks, as Madara bends towards his brother and shakes him. He is still screaming.

The sight before him blurs into patches of red and black and gray. He feels as if he was going both deaf and blind. The world narrows. Izuna is dead.

It is the smoke, he wants to say. 

The smoke; because why else would his eyes water so?

 

 

 

開始

“You are too slow.”

Tobirama squints through the bandages covering his face and knows that his eyebrows are still visible under the white layers, so whoever wants to criticize him might just as well bear the frown on his face as well. He doesn’t even bother to grunt.

Even before the person reaches him, Tobirama knows it is Izuna Uchiha. He has a jumping sort of walking, like he is ready to fly and transcend this world. It is both annoying and endearing. 

“I could have easily snoken upon you.” finishes Izuna as finally crosses the last bits of the training ground and puts his hands on his hips. He waits for Tobirama to roll his eyes at his intentionally terrible use of grammar - something the Senju cannot take - but Tobirama simply puts down his shinai. And they wait.

Then Izuna gives up and sighs.

“Hashirama let my brother know who let  _me_ know that Hashirama is searching for you.”

What Izuna doesn’t say but is clear on his face: Hashirama worries. There hasn’t been a day he hasn’t worried since Tobirama was carried back half-dead from the Hagoromo’s, face so savagely torn apart he couldn’t even breathe properly, muttering the same phrase over and over again. 

But I am here now, Tobirama thinks and looks down to search for a stone he can kick into. Instead, he bits his cheeks which hurt like hell already. Finally, a fucking wake up call. Everything sets him on edge nowadays and yet he cannot fight properly, - like he used to - not since the tortures. He already feels bone tired, just by swinging this excuse of a sword.

Then, with the lightest of grasps, Izuna takes the weapon from his hands and smiles. Tobirama is not sure whether he is more surprised by him smiling or him letting to take the shinai.

The Uchiha takes a step to the right, then very quickly, as if swaying (as if dancing, indeed), he takes a left turn and jumps in front of Tobirama, only to graze the edge of his shoulders with the very tip of the weapon.

“ _Tobira_ ” says Izuna conversationally, as if they were talking about the weather. His eyes are very warm and dark, like wine, like their river in the dark. “It takes some turns to get to the heart of some things.”

He stares.

It was Izuna who carried him back to the village. The debt between them is very great and yet his smile is free.

“I want you to take your time.”

The way he handles his weapon is light, the way he touches Tobirama’s face is even lighter. And in the setting sun Izuna’s smile is soft and Tobirama returns home with him, elbows touching and heart warmer than sunny summer spots of the Senju forest.

 

 

 

 

( _“Tobirama” Izuna’s laugh is bloody and when he coughs, he paints Tobirama’s face with his life. “You learned very well indeed.”_ )  

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me with cour thoughts if you feel like it. :-)


End file.
